Daily Food & Ag Digest
Every day, the staff of the Genetic Literacy Project scours the Web for stories on a range of agricultural and food issues, including the GMO debate, conventional and organic farming, regulations, new breeding technologies and sustainability. We publish excerpts of those stories and encourage our readers to visit the original publications for the complete stories.
Viewpoint: LA restaurants tried to sell groceries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Why did the city shut them down?
A few Los Angeles restaurants struggling to maintain footing amid the COVID-19 outbreak identified a clever way to generate revenue ...
Viewpoint: Anti-biotech activist Vandana Shiva says GMO soy caused the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s why she’s wrong
In recent months, quacks and charlatans of all kinds have been rubbing their hands with glee, as a novel coronavirus ...
Podcast: Science writer Michael Specter on what you should know about the coronavirus, food security and GMOs
Science writer, New Yorker contributor and author of the book Denialism Michael Specter joins Felix Salmon on the Slate Money ...
Science to the rescue? How modern genetics could help save the world from coronavirus
Humanity really has only two options to confront the coronavirus pandemic currently sweeping the planet. The first is to mount ...
Plants communicate to fight off pests. Their ‘conversations’ might help us safeguard our food crops
When a beetle larva bites into the leaf of a goldenrod plant .... [t]he bite damages the goldenrod .... causing ...
Nutrient-fortified, drought-tolerant chickpea could provide sustainable protein source for India
Chickpea is a major source of protein for the people in India. It is grown mainly in semi-arid regions during ...
Locust invasion has jeopardized the livelihoods of 20 million Africans—now a second wave is coming
Billions of desert locusts have swept across east Africa, threatening the livelihoods of more than 20 million people. Now a ...
Bayer settles Roundup weedkiller false advertising lawsuit for $39.5 million
Bayer AG agreed to pay $39.5 million to settle allegations that its Monsanto unit ran misleading ads about the controversial ...
COVID crisis captivates conspiracy theorists
In the face of a global catastrophe like COVID-19, it’s only natural that frightened, anxious people try to ascribe blame ...
Kenya could stop locust invasion within two months, despite coronavirus pandemic
The Government says it will take at least two more months to check the spread of the desert locusts in ...
How do you make vegetables taste like meat? The science behind the rise of plant-based burgers
“Beyond Meat,” an American company that produces plant-based meat substitutes, made a huge splash in financial markets when its stock ...
Fact checking COVID-19 Facebook posts: Philippines, Sri Lanka aren’t killing coronavirus with aerial pesticide spraying
Purported advisories urging residents to stay indoors while national air force helicopters spray disinfectant over homes to kill off the ...
Ultraviolet irradiation could kill mold on strawberries, cutting fungicide use and food waste
How many times have you purchased a package of beautiful, red, ripe strawberries from the grocery store only to have ...
Viewpoint: How ‘fraudulent, poorly designed, and biased’ studies sow doubt about GMO, gene-edited crops
Research in crop science in recent years has advanced at an unprecedented rate, and the intermingling of old and new ...
Local officials in Uganda want scientists to help counter nation’s influential anti-GMO activists
Local government officials from over 10 districts in Central Uganda warned scientists of biotech critics whose efforts they claimed were ...
Farmers running ‘unprecedented race’ to secure fertilizer, seeds and pesticides amid coronavirus outbreak
North America’s biggest farm suppliers are accelerating shipments of fertilizer, seeds and agricultural chemicals to crop-growing regions in an unprecedented ...
Viewpoint: ‘Fear profiteering’—organic activists, trial lawyers capitalize on coronavirus to make a buck
While 70 million Americans are under lockdown to contain spread of the 2019 form of coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, in order to ...
Following neonicotinoid insecticide ban, UK canola growers ask government to cover crop losses from pest infestations
Since the ban on neonics, the UK area of oilseed rape has progressively fallen year on year. What’s more, following ...
CRISPR gene editing could yield drought-tolerant tomatoes and kiwis that grow in salty soil
Genetic engineering will allow the production of tomatoes and kiwis that are more tolerant to saline lands and will require ...
How a few pioneering botanists prepared us to battle the coronavirus outbreak
When German pathologist Robert Koch discovered the bacterium behind tuberculosis in 1882, he included a short guide for linking microorganisms ...
COVID-19 virus spread prompts food insecurity fears in Africa
The spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus is prompting food insecurity fears in Africa, with some countries already experiencing rising prices, ...
French agriculture minister says glyphosate key to sustainable farming, raising doubts about proposed weedkiller bans
France’s agriculture minister has declared glyphosate is an essential tool of the agroecological transition, raising hopes of a change in ...
Viewpoint: Can pesticides on produce harm you? Not even if you ate 3,624 strawberries in one day
I am a registered dietitian who believes that any form of fruits and vegetables are healthy – organic or conventional ...
‘My cows don’t know about coronavirus’: Why America will have all the food it needs
My cows don’t know about coronavirus. They’re still giving milk on the schedule that they always follow. They love their ...
Next-generation GMO crops poised to make major contributions to sustainable farming and medicine
Transgenic crops have been planted in different countries for over twenty years, starting from 1996. About 191.7 million hectares were planted ...
Oil from GMO canola, high in omega-3 fatty acids, poised to hit US stores in mid-2020
A newly emerging omega-3 canola oil is set to be available in the market by the second quarter of 2020 ...
India cancels royalties seed companies pay Bayer for GMO cotton, threatening foreign investment in nation’s biotech crop sector
India has axed the royalties that local seed companies pay to German drugmaker Bayer AG for Monsanto’s genetically modified (GM) ...
